Goa Tourism Master Plan does not envision new casinos

The upcoming , Tourism Minister Manohar ‘Babu’ Ajgaonkar told the state legislat๊ive assembly on Wednesday.

In a written reply to an unstarred question raised by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Churchill Alemao, Ajgaonkar said, 𝓡ꦅ“All stakeholders involved in the tourism industry would be consulted, before finalising the master plan.”

On a pointed query as to whether n✨ew casinos would be allowed under the draft tourism p🦋lan, Ajgaonkar replied: “No, Sir”.

Incidentally, the Goa cabinet h🔯ad in 2013 taken a in the state and not grant any fresh licenses.

Media reports earlier this month had indicated that draft tourism policy creat♔ed by the state government suggested creating an international gaming cluster to relo𓄧cate the six existing off𒈔shore casinos.

In August last year, ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had on the floor of the assembly stated that a casino policy would be unveile🦹d very soon, that would involve shifting of the existing offshore casinos to a designated area on land within four years, appointment of a g💎aming commissioner, banning of locals from accessing casinos and iss🍰uing long term (10-15 years) casino licenses to the companies shifting offshore casinos to land.

However, till date, no further progress seems to have been made on the announcement made by Parrikar on the floor of t🗹he house.